How did the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand shape or create the world that we live in today?

1 Answer
Apr 14, 2016

Wow!!! This one is steep!!!

Explanation:

I would try my best but it is going to be very general!
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand plunged Europe and most of the World in the first global war, World War I;

This war caused a big rearrangement of the balance of power in Europe and the formation of new nations and equilibria. It also led (directly and indirectly) to the formation of two dictatorships one in Germany, with Hitler, and one in Russia, with Stalin.

The great antagonism between Nazism and Communism together with a need of revenge the defeat in WWI led Germany to cause the second great conflict, World War II.

From this conflict (involving again and maybe more intensely all the nations of the World) emerged the US as a new military and economic power antagonized by the communist USSR (born from the ashes of the Tsarist Russia of WWI) and its block of communist allies.

This antagonism fueled the new version of global war called "The Cold War" not fought directly, face-to-face by the two enemies, but through other nations that, like puppets, were maneuvered by the two big powers to destabilize or defend local governments; conflicts such as the Korean, Viet-Nam and Afghanistan wars.

This new type of war pushed humanity on the brink of Nuclear Annihilation but fortunately ended with Gorbachev and his Perestroika leading to a new balance of power and a new Russia (maybe a more Tsarist one!!!).

The heritage of this Cold War is the trail of instability left by the two old adversaries (born and empowered after WWI and WWII) in various part of the World where they used to face each other through other nations; in Middle East (Israel, Iran, Iraq), in Africa (Sudan, Somalia, Ruanda) and in the Far East (North Korea).

You may think that the position of prominence of Soviet Russia was forged into the tragedy of WWI (caused by the assassination) and the prominence of the other principal actor, the US, was forged into the other big tragedy, of WWII, caused by WWI!

Ok; this was VERY general and probably not very accurate...I would now call for help and support from my friend @Lucio Margherita that is the real expert!